1. Field
Method and apparatus consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a method and apparatus for estimating image optical flow.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical flow is a two-dimensional (2D) motion component of a pixel between two temporally consecutive image frames. Thus, a conventional optical flow estimation technique often includes receiving two temporally consecutive images, determining corresponding pixels and their respective positions in the images, and estimating a difference between the positions of the corresponding pixels. Here, the estimated difference is the aforementioned optical flow, which corresponds to movement of the pixel. The optical flow may be generated due to a movement of a camera for capturing an image, or a movement of a scene, or a subject being captured, or may be generated due to a change in an illumination environment even when there is no movement of a camera or a scene or a subject being captured. An optical flow is an amount of motion generated due to a change in a brightness pattern within an image. In a particular condition, the optical flow is closely related to actual three-dimensional (3D) motion in a 3D scene. Due to these features, the optical flow is being widely used in various fields, such as 3D restoration via an image or moving object tracking in computer vision, image noise suppression, high resolution image production, and moving picture frame rate conversion.